What I like about Google in the Morning (other than the smell of victory, of course), is:
The company is run by geeks and nderds and therefor, they care a lot about science. This morning, when I browsed to Google, I found this wonderfull Doodle and it made me grin:

The more I dig into the Atompunk side of things, the more wonderful tech-gems pop up. I had no idea what a treasure trove of the weird and wonderful hides in the Atompunk timeframe.
During the height of the space race, both the Soviet Union and the United States used massive amounts of resources to get and stay ahead and obviously pursued various avenues to reach certain goals. These goals included: Give our astronauts/cosmonauts good suits while in space and give them something to walk around in while on the moon.
Which brings me to the wo suits I would like to introduce to you:

The Grumman Moon Suit

This beautiful piece of tech was designed by Grumman in the early 1960’s and became a favourite of Life magazine. It was intended for use during longer excursions on the surface of he moon, possibly in connection with a moon base.The cylindrical main body of the suit was fully pressurized and would have provided the occupant with a comfortable atmosphere to work in.

The Soviets also developed at least one suit for operation on the moon. There could be more but this is the only one I could find in all haste:

A good deal more conservative than the Grumman Moon Suit, the Krechet-94 was the Soviet equivalent to the famous Apollo/Skylab A7L, the NASA moon suit. It was designed for the Soviet manned lunar program, but after this was abandoned, the Krechet-94 was never used.
Too bad the Soviets did not continue their manned lunar program after Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong, and Buzz Aldrin got there first. It would still have been glorious!

I simply glad to share this, it just came in via our friends at NASA. The MSL has taken this magnificent and inspiring image on the surface of Mars. This is how its surrounding looks like. Desolate, but eerily picturesque:

The last podcast before I go to Vienna for the European Steampunk Convention. It was recorded under somewhat unusual circumstances on-the-fly while I was trudging through the part of western Germany to which the railway came last.

Today I feel great. Today is one of the days I will look back upon as proof that mankind can achieve great things when we put our hearts, minds and strength to it. The Mars Science Laboratory Mission (MSL) is a prime example of what comes out when we use our talents and (to quote out of context but rather fittingly from Odyssey 2010):

Use them together, use them in peace.

MSL represents the combined efforts of (in no particular order) The USA, the UK, Spain, Finland, Germany, France, Russia and Canada. I am excited about the discoveries, the Curiosity rover will make, I can hardly describe it. This morning, while on the train to work I kept refreshing both my Twitter-stream and the CNN App constantly until the elevating and relieving news of successful touch-down came through.

Today is a day I feel great and I feel extra-great because I am a science-nerd and astronomy enthusiast!
And now for some eye-candy, all images (c) Nasa and in the public domain!

50 years ago today, John Glenn was boosted into space on top of a Atlas LV-3B rocket. More precisely, he sat inside Friendship 7 (Mercury-Atlas 6) on top of the Atlas. Friendship 7 was a very cramped affair in deed.

More detailed information on the mission is obviously available from the people resonsible, NASA. The National Aeronautic and Space Association has set up a special site commemorating the event.

I leave you with one of the official photographs taken in 1962 (digitalized version) courtesy of NASA: